Leptin and Cancer: From Cancer Stem Cells to Metastasis (Preprint)

摘要

There is growing evidence that obesity is a risk factor of cancer incidence and mortality. Hence,the identification of the mechanistic links between obesity and cancer progression is emerging as a topic of widespread interest. Recently several groups have addressed the functional roles of leptin, an adipocyte-derived adipokine, for mammary tumor progression. In this issue of Endocrine-Related Cancer, Zheng et al. study the role of leptin on tumor growth in a xenograft model of MMTV-Wnt1 derived cancer cells. They study growth of these cancer cells in the context of obese animals, such as ob/ob mice (lacking leptin) and db/db mice (lacking functional leptin receptors) and find that leptin triggers leptin receptor positive cancer stem cell differentiation, thereby promoting tumor cell survival. These findings highlight the therapeutic potential for leptin and leptin signaling in the context of mammary tumor growth.